Vincenzo Nibali up to second as Astana team on the rise in WorldTour ranking

Tom Boonen still leads after his storming cobbles campaign as the season moves into next phase

Vincenzo Nibali (Cannondale) has moved up to second place in the International Cycling Union (UCI) WorldTour ranking, following his heartbreaking second place in yesterday’s Liège-Bastogne-Liège. The Sicilian’s aggressive riding lit up the closing kilometres of what had been a cagey race, with a fierce attack on the steep Cote de Roche aux Faucons with less than 20km to go. The managed to pull out what looked like a race-winning advantage, but was chased down by Astana’s eventual race winner Maxim Iglinskiy, who caught and passed Nibali with little more than a kilometre to go.

Nibali’s 80 points for second place - added to the 112 that the ‘Shark of Messina’ earned from his Tirreno-Adriatico victory, and the 70 he took with third place in Milano-Sanremo - give the 27-year-old a new total of 272 points, and move him from sixth to second; leapfrogging Sanremo winner Simon Gerrans (GreenEdge), Olympic champion Samuel Sánchez (Euskaltel-Euskadi), Flèche Wallonne winner Joaquim Rodríguez (Katusha), and his own Liquigas-Cannondale teammate Peter Sagan.

Tom Boonen (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) still leads the season-long classification, following the Belgian’s total domination of the Cobbled Classics. With the season moving into a new phase, with the week-long Tour de Romandie, and three-week Giro d’Italia approaching, the former World champion’s days at the top are surely numbered.

Iglinskiy scored his first WorldTour points of the year with yesterday’s Liège victory, and the 100 points see the Kazakh enter the classification in 17th place. His Astana teammate Enrico Gasparotto - who only entered the ranking himself the previous weekend, following his Amstel Gold victory - won the sprint for third place in Liège, and the 70 points see the Italian leap from 20th to eleventh. Meanwhile, Nibali’s is not the only movement inside the top ten, as Sánchez’ seventh place on Sunday sees him leapfrog both Rodríguez and Sagan to move into third.

Astana on the march as Spain sees its lead checked

Iglinskiy’s victory, and Gasparotto’s third place, see their Astana team jump from eighth to fourth in the team rankings, displacing early movers RadioShack-Nissan, BMC Racing, Team Sky, and GreenEdge. The Kazakh team’s new total of 408 is now just 94 behind Russian rival Katusha, who slipped from second to third thanks to the rise of Liquigas-Cannondale.

The green and blue Italian team, thanks almost entirely to the results of Nibali and Sagan, is now closing in on leader Omega Pharma-Quick Step, whose points total of 547 is almost entirely down to Boonen. With Tony Martin and Levi Leipheimer - two of the team’s tour stars - both injured by cars in separate training accidents, the Belgian team’s place in the top spot will doubtless come under threat in the next weeks.

In the national ranking Spain sees its lead eroded a little, with Italy leapfrogging Belgium - which failed to deliver in its French-speaking half’s biggest race - into second place. Rodríguez’ Flèche victory had pulled it away a little, but Nibali’s and Gasparotto’s results in Liège sees it reduced once more. Iglinskiy’s were the first points scored by Kazakhstan, and the transcontinental country enters the ranking in 13th spot.